U of S Ag Economists Say WTO Ag Agreement Will Hurt Canadian Producers
Posted November 30, 2005
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 30, 2005 2005-11-27-AG
U of S Ag Economists Say WTO Ag Agreement Will Hurt Canadian Producers
University of Saskatchewan agricultural economists Richard Gray and Hartley
Furtan say two proposals scheduled for review at the World Trade
Organization's sixth ministerial conference in December are damaging to
Canadian agricultural producers. Their complete analysis is available in the
form of a Canada Rural Economy Research Lab policy brief which can be
downloaded at http://crerl.usask.ca.
The WTO meetings are set for December 13-18 in Hong Kong, China where
agriculture tariffs, farm subsidies and market access will be negotiated and
participants will try to develop a new trade agreement for agriculture.
A significant portion of Canada's wealth originates from international
trade. Agriculture is no exception to this rule, particularly for the grains
and oilseeds sector. Consequently, the WTO negotiations are delicate for
Canadian politicians and vitally important to Canadian agricultural
producers.
Professors Gray and Furtan have reviewed the United States and European
Union proposals and see little benefit for Canadian producers. The authors
point out that both proposals would eliminate the single-desk authority of
the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).
"While the time may have come for more changes to the CWB, the removal of
the single-desk selling authority as suggested in the trade proposals would
be very poor policy for western Canadian grain farmers who use and value its
services. More thought and consideration needs to be given to what takes its
place. The current proposals place a large cost on Canadian farmers,
particularly western grain producers, while delivering few if any economic
benefits in return," said Gray.
Many of the Canadian supply managed sectors could also lose some or all of
their tariff protection (dairy, poultry, egg, turkey, and hatching egg
producers), especially if the more stringent United States proposal on
tariff reduction were adopted.
Furtan said, "We could not find many positive indicators in the current
proposals. Proposed subsidies to US and EU grain and oilseed producers are
not expected to change much, so there will be very little upside in terms of
increases in world agricultural commodity prices."
For more information, please download the Policy Brief located at:
http://crerl.usask.ca or contact:
Richard Gray
Agriculture Economics
College of Agriculture
University of Saskatchewan
Tel: (306) 966-4026
Hartley Furtan
Agriculture Economics
College of Agriculture
University of Saskatchewan
Tel: (306) 966-4032
